THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 23, 1995 TAG: 9510230111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
When he pulled off his helmet at the end of the most disappointing day of this most disappointing year, Rick Mast wore a thousand-yard stare.
It's one thing when your car breaks early while running in the bottom 20. But it's quite another when you're all but running away with a race, as Mast was doing in Sunday's AC Delco 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
Instead of going to Victory Lane, Mast went home early. And the win went instead to a fellow Virginian, South Boston's Ward Burton, who also had not won a race.
Mast had led the most laps - 139 - when trouble struck just before a yellow flag on lap 257 following Gary Bradberry's crash.
To the spectators, what happened next was something of a shock. Mast rolled in to the pits as the leader but never came out.
Mast, however, knew he was in trouble: ``It dropped a cylinder one lap before that caution came out. What can I say? Story of our year.''
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION: Controversy erupted after NASCAR mistakenly penalized Dale Earnhardt late in the race for an alleged missing lug nut, then threw a yellow flag to try to correct it.
NASCAR president Bill France said the caution flag was thrown because ``we didn't want to influence the championship. We wanted it decided on the racetrack.''
NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said the inspector who made the bad call in the pits would not be disciplined: ``He's a good man - one of our best officials. He made a mistake. The matter is closed.''
GORDON'S LONG DAY: Jeff Gordon lost 43 points of his lead in the Winston Cup championship scramble to Dale Earnhardt, but he still has a 162-point edge with only two races left.
All Gordon needs to do is finish 20th in the final events and the title is his, no matter what Earnhardt does.
``We're having a little bit of bad luck right now, but I don't think it's going to stay that way for the next two races,'' said Gordon, who finished 20th, two laps down, after a spin and bad timing on two green-flag pit stops.
``Crazy things happened all day. I think it's been nail-biting time for a long time.''
MAKING A SPLASH: If you saw Michael Waltrip's first crash on TV, you'd have to admit that it was pretty amazing he even had the opportunity to get into another one.
But there he was, running round and round in an already wrecked car when rookie Shane Hall crashed in turn four on lap 212 and sent Waltrip's car into the water barrels at the end of the pit wall.
The resulting geyser virtually guaranteed Waltrip air time on the Sunday night highlight shows. The speedway had to bring out brush-equipped tractors to mop up.
``I think Sterling (Marlin) holds the record,'' Waltrip said. ``I seen him wreck four times in one night at Bristol.''
Waltrip's first wreck was the biggest of the day's six mishaps. Bobby Hamilton spun in turn four, and, with the track obscured by smoke, Waltrip plowed into Mike Wallace. Ken Schrader then hit Waltrip. Dale Jarrett also was involved.
``Bobby spun out and boiled his tires and smoked up the joint,'' Waltrip said. ``I didn't see (Wallace) and whoever was behind me didn't see me.''
Said Schrader: ``I just run into Michael as hard as I could.''
``It just created a big ol' smoke screen,'' Wallace said. ``I just slowed up so much I got run in the back of. We thought we were slowing down to miss a wreck and got involved in a big one.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The day's most spectacular crash occurred on lap 212 when Shane
Hall's spin sent Michael Waltrip into a barrier of water barrels.
The barrier did its job; Waltrip was unhurt.
by CNB